


Winging It

by omphalos, Wolfling



Category: Supernatural
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-11-24
Updated: 2010-11-24
Packaged: 2017-10-13 08:44:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 18,353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/135368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/omphalos/pseuds/omphalos, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wolfling/pseuds/Wolfling
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gabriel teaches Dean a lesson, but everyone ends up learning it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Winging It

**Author's Note:**

  * For [morganoconner](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=morganoconner).



> This was written for the Secret Lovers fic exchange on the team_free_love lj community. We were lucky enough to get MorganOConner as our recepient and wrote to her prompt: 'Gabriel accidentally turns Dean into an angel. Dean is not amused.' The 'accidentally' bit kind of got lost on the way, but we think it turned out pretty decently anyway. :)
> 
> Thanks also to ktnb for betaing for us. :D

"So," Gabriel said, doing a horrible imitation of a hard boiled cop from the movies, "you're going to sing like a canary, or you're going to sleep with the fishes. Your choice."

Dean shot him a 'for real?' look. Hamming it up wasn't helping. "What my partner meant to say was, 'you have everything to gain from making a full confession, Mr Peters'," he told the teenage douchebag, who'd summoned up a plague of lowest rent demons onto this unsuspecting little county.

"Did I mention the fishes are Jaws' crankier cousins?" Gabriel threw in. The lollipop he pulled out of nowhere should have looked ridiculous with the whole bad cop vibe he was going over the top with, but somehow it worked. Or maybe Dean had just been hanging out with Trickster archangels a little too much recently.

"I got nothing to confess to, man," the kid said sulkily, his arms folded over his skinny frame, which was covered by an over-sized Ozzy tee. "I mean, d'you think I'm stupid?" He grabbed a handful of sheets from the interview desk and waved them around. "All these things you keep yelling at me about, they all happened in the same day! I'd hafta be Clark fucking Kent to have done 'em all."

"Show and tell time." Dean spun a crime scene photo over to him. "Take a good look at that, kid. Tell us what you see."

The boy clearly didn't want to look at it, but he forced his eyes down, immediately wincing. "Oh God, is that old Mrs Bromwich?"

"Was," Gabriel said. "Now it's Mrs. Bromwich chop suey."

"W- what happened to her?"

Dean didn't answer, just spun another full-color photo over. "That's George Larrimere. I'm having to tell you that 'cause we still haven't found his head. I have another three pictures just like these, Mr. Peters. You wanna see the lot, or you wanna tell us what you did so we can try to stop it? _Before_ there's another bunch of scenes just like them for the boys in CSI to get all hot under the collar about?"

The boy, Billy Peters, just stared at him, open-mouthed.

"Look kid," Gabriel said, leaning over where he was sitting. "We know you found that book, and it's no coincidence that every victim is someone who has a problem with you. So just tell us what ritual you used, and we won't have to show you up close and personal what those people went through."

"I didn't... It wasn't..." Billy brought his hands to his face. "It wasn't real. It wasn't meant to be real."

Dean almost felt sorry for him. "Just tell us what you did," he repeated wearily.

Gabriel took a step closer and loomed menacingly, and it seemed that was enough to break the kid. He babbled out in detail everything he'd done. Dean took notes more out of habit than anything, knowing that archangel memory would be able to replay the whole thing verbatim if needed.

"Okay, Billy," he said once the kid seemed to have finished spilling his guts. "You've been all kinds of stupid. Now you get to sit tight and hope that we can get there in time. While you wait, take a real good look at those pictures. 'Cause you know now, demons exist. Stands to reason, the other side does too, and let me tell you, you think demons are shit-scary? You better pray you never meet an angel, not with this on your conscience."

Gabriel snorted, but remained silent as he followed Dean out. Once outside, however, he asked, "Really, Dean-o, who gave you permission to use angels as your own personal bogeymen?"

"Just giving the kid the benefit of my experience, Gabe-o."

In fairness, this team-up with Gabriel was going way better so far than just about anyone had expected. Ever since God had brought back Gabriel, who in turn had rescued Sam, Dean had tried to be patient with the archangel. Because, really, getting Sammy out of the Cage? That was a debt Dean would never be able to repay.

But Gabriel had decided to hang around for reasons known best to him, and now even Cas' patience was being stretched too thin. Only Sam seemed to have endless tolerance for Gabriel's wisecracks and behavior, which kind of sucked seeing as Sam had never shown Dean that kind of patience _ever_.

Cas had turned worried eyes Dean's way when Gabriel had insisted he and Dean take this case instead of one of the more usual pairings, but, yeah, so far so good. Maybe they'd been wrong to worry.

"You and your brother were a special circumstance, and you know it. Generally angels don't give a damn about what humans do, with a few awesome exceptions." Gabriel gestured at himself with a smirk.

"Yeah, well, maybe I was thinking of you," Dean said as he unlocked and slid into the Impala. "You telling me you _weren't_ feeling the urge for a trick coming on back there?"

Gabriel gave a half shrug. "Maybe a little, but it wasn't like the kid hadn't been pushed into it. If I were still in the just deserts profession, I might've gone after good old George myself." He paused. "Would've shown more style though."

"I bet," Dean said with a smirk as he started the engine because credit where credit was due. "Always said you had style. Well, apart from when picking on my giant little brother, but I guess he's forgiven you for that, huh?" It was a leading question, and Dean couldn't decide if he'd meant it to be or not.

"Actually, I was picking on _you_ ," Gabriel corrected. "I was trying to teach _him_ a lesson. And yeah, Sammy and I have reached an understanding." He waggled his eyebrows in a way that Dean found disturbing when they were talking about his brother. No, scratch that. It was just plain disturbing regardless of subject matter.

He started driving and decided to one-up the archangel. "You know it's just jealousy, right? Well, that and a good helping of gratitude."

Gabriel wasn't the least fazed and merely smirked in that irritating way he had. "You keep telling yourself that, Dean, if it makes you feel better."

Dean just snorted. "Sammy's always been that way, ever since he was a little kid. If I had something, he had to have it too."

"You actually admitting voluntarily you have something with Castiel?"

Dean shot Gabriel a look. He wasn't sure he'd liked the sound of that. "Cas and me are pals. Why the hell wouldn't I admit that?"

"Do you eye-fuck like that with all your pals? I know you don't have many, but... Really?"

"Shut the hell up!" Dean's hands gripped the wheel tighter. "Cas is just intense; that's all."

It really pissed Dean off every time Gabriel said shit like that, and he said it a _lot_. He should treat Cas with more respect. Then Dean frowned even harder as the conversation caught up with him. "Wait. What the fuck? We were talking about you and Sam. Why the hell would that lead you to perverted suggestions about me and Cas?"

He hit the brakes hard, absentmindedly giving the finger through the window to the guy hooting him as he glared at Gabriel. "You and my brother are not- You are so not-" He couldn't even say it, and yet the more he thought about it, the more it made sense of things he'd been noticing recently. "Fuck."

"Well, not to go into any of the awesome details, but yeah. That sums it up pretty much." Gabriel looked damned smug.

But... but... "You bastard! You mojoed him or something. That's... that's rape!"

Gabriel just stared at Dean for a moment. "Are you _serious_?"

"Fuck, yes, I am!" Dean shoved his hand into his jacket, trying to get at his phone. "I should've known. I _did_ know. Fuck."

Gabriel reached across the front seat and clamped a hand on Dean's arm, tight as steel. "You love your brother so I'm going to cut you some slack. I'm only going to say this once, Winchester, so you better listen." His voice was low and dangerous and held none of his usual humor. "I may be a lot of things, but rapist isn't one of them. I like my partners willing. Beyond that, you really think Sam would just roll over and take it if I tried?"

"You can make him think, make him fricking _feel_ anything you like," Dean said, putting everything he had into not looking as scared shitless as he suddenly was. "You made me able to speak Japanese. You made Sam into a surgeon. Zachariah gave us completely different lives. Michael had my youngest brother brought back to life just so he could wear him to the prom. Fucking angels, you're all the same. Messing with our heads, our hearts, like we're nothing but toys."

"And what was the one thing no angel could make either of you do?" Gabriel asked exasperatedly. "Say 'yes' when you didn't want to. Self-will is the one thing angels can't mess with. So if you're that sure I've stolen Sammy's virtue, why don't you go ask him?"

Dean didn't, not immediately, because Gabriel maybe had a point, but... "Cupids. The naked bastards made my mom and dad fall in love -- forced them together, pretty much. How's that fit with free will?"

Gabriel raised one skeptical eyebrow. "So you're saying what your parents had was rape?"

"They didn't rape each other, but straight from the fat baby's mouth, they weren't easy to pair up. Not exactly soul mates. Do the math, Gabriel." Dean sighed and admitted to himself he didn't really believe Gabriel had raped Sam. It was a relief to admit it. "Look, you can't blame me for getting, y'know, protective. After the way you've played us in the past."

"And how long ago was that?" Gabriel demanded. "It's not like I haven't done other things like given my life to save your bacon since then. Except, wait. I did!"

"Yeah, all right. I'm sorry," Dean said, knowing he didn't sound exactly gracious. "Let's forget I even know about it, okay? My brother doing the dirty with an archangel is a TMI too far." He started driving down the road again, putting his foot down a little. "We've got people to rescue, in case you've forgotten."

"I'm not the one who decided to stop in the middle of the road to throw unfounded accusations around," Gabriel reminded him.

Dean decided it was probably better not to answer that, but then another thought hit him, and he nearly hit the brakes again. "And you thought me and Cas... You thought we were- Jesus, that's just all kinds of perverted!" He was not thinking about him and Cas getting heavy with the inappropriate touching. He totally was not. And he hadn't ever thought about it before. And dreams didn't count.

Gabriel smirked. "Only if you do it right. If you just insist on staring deeply into each other's eyes for hours on end, it's merely pathetic."

"He's not human," Dean said, feeling his jaw muscles tense. "Even if I were interested in his junk, which I'm not-" don't think about Cas' junk; just don't think about Cas "-it's not even his! You guys don't have any!"

Gabriel made a show of looking down at himself. "Hey, I built it. It's totally mine!"

"Yeah, and putting on scrubs totally makes me a brain surgeon."

"Not the same thing at all, Dean. Trust me."

Dean snorted rudely. Trust Gabriel? Yeah, so they were going on this hunt together, but- Oh Christ, were him and Sammy really... "What was that address again?"

Gabriel rattled it off, paused and then added, "Yep. We are. Every chance we get."

"Get the fuck out of my head, you feathered dick!" God, but he'd had it up to here with angels. Daddy gave them awesome cosmic powers, immortality, the whole having-their-cake-and-eating-it, five star package, and still they weren't happy unless they were screwing up the life of some poor schmo human some place.

"If you wouldn't go projecting all over the place," Gabriel countered, crossing his arms over his chest. He cocked his head and looked at Dean. "Y'know it's not all a romp through the clouds being an angel."

"Oh yeah?" That deserved another snort. "You just try being a human for a week. I mean really a human, click-batteries totally flat. Just spend a week having to eat, sleep, poop, shower, go to work, maybe catch a cold -- just the average week of a citizen here in the privileged West. You wouldn't last five minutes."

"Who says I haven't already tried that? But I guarantee you've never tried being an angel." Gabriel's expression turned speculative. "Maybe we should do something about that."

"What?" Dean asked as he pulled in by the house they were looking for. "Fuck off. I like my junk where it is." He didn't think Gabriel was serious, but it bore saying all the same. "Hands off."

"You really have an obsession with angel junk, you know that?"

"Can't be obsessed with something that doesn't exist, dude." Dean chuckled as he got out of the car and made his way quickly to the trunk.

Gabriel didn't bother doing anything mundane as getting out of the car and walking around it. He just was sitting on the trunk when Dean got there. "Sammy doesn't have any complaints."

Dean screwed up his face. "Thought we'd agreed we weren't talking about that. Look, my baby bro, he's got a history of poor relationship decisions: demons, werewolves, more demons; you're just the latest monster on the turntable. The only thing that surprises me about it is that you're wearing a dude." He shoved at Gabriel, trying to get him off the trunk. "And I guess even that shouldn't be that much of a surprise."

Gabriel didn't budge, but he was looking at Dean speculatively again. "Y'know, Dean-o, I think maybe you need a lesson in walking in someone else's shoes."

Dean glared at him. "Stop dicking around, Gabriel. We've got people to rescue. Or, as you know them, action figures."

Gabriel didn't say anything; he just very deliberately raised his hand and snapped.

Dean staggered back, wrapping his arms around himself. Something felt freaky as hell inside him, kind of icy and burning at the same time. "Wh- what did you do?" he asked, eyes wide.

"Lent you my shoes," Gabriel said smugly.

"What? What the fuck does that mean?" There was something really weird going on between his shoulders too. He backed off further and fumbled in his pocket for his phone, almost dropping it in his haste to speed dial Sam.

His brother picked up after the first ring. "Hello?"

"Sammy! He's done something to me. Your fricking boyfriend has d-" The phone made a fritzing sound and went dead. "Fuck!" He glared desperately at Gabriel, condemning himself as all kinds of fool for ever giving the bastard even a speck of trust.

"If I were you, I'd calm down, Dean," Gabriel told him. "For the sake of the passersby."

"Yeah, well, dear old aunt Ida's just gonna have to cope with the f-word, you smug dick." Dean groaned. The freakiness inside him seemed to be growing, and it hurt, trying to hold it in. "You gonna tell me what you've done, or just sit and gloat?"

"I already told you," Gabriel said. "Lent you my shoes. You think being an angel is so great?" He waved a hand theatrically. "Congratulations. You're an angel."

Dean stared at Gabriel, mind pretty much blank.

"What's the matter, Dean-o? Cat got your halo?"

"O-kay..." he said slowly, still not really thinking all that much. "To save me doing a Jackson in public, between my legs is-?"

Gabriel rolled his eyes. "You really are obsessed, aren't you?"

"If you've-" Dean gave up and grabbed his crotch. It was still reassuringly bulgy. Thank Christ. Now he could worry about the rest of him. Actually, no. There wasn't time for that. Cursing himself some more for forgetting, Dean turned and strode for the front door of the house they'd stopped beside.

Gabriel snapped his fingers, and Dean found himself back by the car again. "I think you need to get control of yourself before you go knocking on any civilian's doors," he advised.

"If those people die because you... Because you..." Dean found he didn't have the words. White ice seemed to be stabbing out inside of him, making him breathless. He started rummaging in his jacket again, trying to keep control of his body. If he really was a fricking angel, he should have one of those shiny Angel-killing blades in here somewhere...

"Relax," Gabriel told him. "Being the fabulous archangel I am, I'm giving you a time-out to get used to things. Literally." He pointed upwards, and when Dean raised his head he saw a bird frozen in midflight.

"Turn me back," Dean said, staring at the bird. "I don't feel good."

"That's just the timestream trying to drag you back in," Gabriel told him cheerfully.

Dean cast a wretched look at Gabriel and sank down onto his knees on the sidewalk. "No. Felt like it before you finger-clicked up the freeze frame, like I've got the alien gutbuster inside me, wanting to get out."

"Oh, that," Gabriel said. "That's normal. Just your grace wanting to stretch out."

"My... grace..."

Dean was having adjustment problems; that much was obvious. He didn't want whatever it was Gabriel had really given him. He didn't want to be here. Maybe, if he was way more lucky than he deserved, he was about to get woken up out of this nightmare by Sam or Cas. It was a fricking weird-ass nightmare even by his standards, but maybe, if he wished hard enough....

Something happened.

One moment Dean was kneeling on the sidewalk, doing his best to believe in fairies, the next moment he was in a motel room, staring up at the pissed off, but now increasingly bemused face of his brother, who had a phone to his ear.

"Sam?" Dean said weakly, not at all sure if this was real. Hell, if any of the last ten minutes was.

Sam slowly put the phone down. "Dean?" He crossed the motel room and knelt beside Dean. "Are you okay? You called, and the phone just cut out. Did Gabriel send you back? Where is he?"

Dean grabbed at Sam, needing his support. "That bastard.... That... dick! He- Sammy, have I got... wings?"

Sam frowned. "Why would you have wings?"

"'Cause he said. That feather-ass dick of a boyfriend of yours said-" Dean stopped. Was that a lie too? Please, let it have been a lie. "Sam, he's fucked with my head. I dunno what- I-"

He broke off as he felt.... something and stared around the room. He happened to be looking in the right place to see Gabriel appear in the usual angel breeze. What was different was that Dean could've sworn he saw the shape of something large and... feathery for a split second before Gabriel folded the.... things close to his back.

Sam's arm was at Dean's back, preventing him backing off, not that that would've been easy on his knees. "Gabriel," he heard Sam say, sounding pissed. "What the hell have you done to Dean?"

"Relax," Gabriel said. "He's fine. Even a little precocious. He's totally ahead of the curve on learning to fly."

"You _did_ give him wings? Gabriel, what...?" Now Sam sounded as confused as Dean felt.

"He's made me into a dick, Sammy," he said miserably.

"If you're a dick, that's all on you, big boy," Gabriel told him. He turned to Sam and shrugged nonchalantly. "I just shared a little of the angel mojo. He thinks angels have it easy. Well, now he gets to see for himself."

"You made him into an _angel_?" Sam stood, walking in front of Dean, who bit back a moan, bending over, his arms still wrapped around him.

"Not hurting any less," he muttered to the floor.

Gabriel rolled his eyes. "If you'd stop trying to fight it-"

"Then what?" Dean asked, glaring up at him. "Sam gets his eyes burned out?"

"Please," Gabriel scoffed. "If Sammy can see me without needing to go out and buy a white cane, he's not even going to need sunglasses to look at you."

Dean stared dumbly between them. He knew it was dumbly, but still didn't seem able to close his mouth. He had nothing intelligent to say. Then the pain inside him flared further, and he ended up curled up fetal-style on the floor, listening to moans he was pretty sure were coming from him.

"Gabe," he could hear Sam muttering urgently. "Look, I know he can be an ass about some things, but this is killing him. You've gotta fix him."

He didn't hear an answer from Gabriel. Instead, he felt another breeze and heard the sound of wings flapping, followed by a familiar gravelly voice. "Dean?"

Dean moved his head enough to see a pair of shoes and pant legs, then looked up further, half-rolling to his back. "Cas," he gasped out. "Cas, you gotta help me here."

Cas stared him for a moment, then spun to pin Gabriel with his gaze. "What did you do?" he demanded, actually advancing on the archangel threateningly.

"Just what it looks like, bro," Gabriel replied. "Gave him a taste of our mojo. He's fine, promise. Just needs to relax and stretch out a little, but he's too stubborn to listen. Granted, that's not exactly new, but-"

"How about," Dean said through gritted teeth and between groans. "You flap off and never... come the fuck... back. Have some.... more horse babies or... or something."

He felt a hand on his upper shoulder, and then Sam's voice said, "Gabriel, I'm not sure he knows _how_ to do what you keep saying he should do." Bingo. Jackpot to the overgrown emo kid.

There was silence for a moment while Dean clenched up tight on the floor again, and then Gabriel, in a softer voice, said, "You talk him through it. He'll waste less time resisting everything you say."

A sigh and then Cas replied, "Okay. But we _will_ speak more about this later." The sound of soft rustling heralded Cas' appearance in front of him, kneeling and reaching out into Dean's personal space. "Dean, I want you to do exactly what I tell you."

Dean managed to look up enough to meet Cas' eyes. They seemed freakily blue today. Maybe that was the pain talking. "O- Okay..." he managed.

Cas didn't actually smile approvingly, but he still managed to give the impression of doing so. "Keep your eyes on me," he said. "And do what I do." Slowly the blue in Cas' eyes seemed to grow brighter and brighter as if lit by an inner light that was getting every closer to the surface.

It was a mesmerizing sight, and somehow it seemed to make the pain recede a little. "Dunno how to do that, man," Dean said softly, not really wanting Cas to stop.

"You're doing fine," Cas told him. The light now seemed to be radiating directly from Cas' skin.

Dean levered himself up onto one arm, still staring at Cas. "Jesus," he whispered. Cas was beautiful, fricking _beautiful_ , all glowing and... and suddenly more than anything else, Dean wanted to see the real Cas, see him away from the body that had been Jimmy Novak's.

"Yes," Cas said as if he had heard the thought. The light continued to grow until it had enveloped all of Cas' human form, until there was nothing but light, bright and shining and glorious and beyond anything Dean had ever experienced before.

"My God, Cas..." Dean couldn't help but reach out for that light. He put his arms out... at least he thought he did, but he still saw only light. "Uh?"

"Are you still in pain, Dean?"

"No?" He couldn't work out how he was even still hearing Cas' voice. Shouldn't it be that sharp, scratchy whine? Instead it was richer and fuller than he'd ever thought possible.

"Good." Cas paused. "You make a... beautiful angel."

"I... What?" Dean looked down at himself, confused as to how he seemed to be suddenly standing, but he couldn't see himself through the haze of Cas' true form... then he realized with a jolt that some of the light he was seeing was coming from _him_. "Fuck!"

"Though I see your penchant for vulgarity remains unchanged," Cas observed wryly.

"Oh, like it matters." Dean tried to pull a face at Cas, but wasn't sure if what seemed to amount to a small star could actually do that kind of thing. "I mean, look at me, man. Look at what that bastard's done to me!"

"He's made it so I can share my true form with you," Cas pointed out.

And yeah, that was a point, a pretty significant point, but, "I liked my body! I mean, I've got no... I mean, you guys don't have..."

Cas reached out and touched him, or melded his light with Dean's own or something. Dean didn't want to think about the specifics. After a second, he didn't want to think about anything because he was too busy _feeling_ Cas. It felt like everything the angel knew and saw and _was_ flowing over and through Dean like water.

"Cas..." Dean was pretty sure he closer to sang the name rather than plain said it, and that was way too unmanly for comfort. "What're you doing, dude?" he thought he went on to ask, but he might not have done seeing as he no longer had even the slightest fricking clue where he left off and Cas began. He was picking up all kinds of weird songish shit from Cas, at least it'd better be coming from from Cas. None of it was words as such, but somehow it all made sense like they'd been doing whatever the fuck this was together forever and not just now for the first time.

"You are far too preoccupied with a single body part," Cas told him, the words tasting of fond amusement, and it took a few moments for Dean to remember what he meant. "Your penis will still be there when you retake your human form, but there is more than one way to join with another."

"So, what, this is angel sex?" Dean tried to hurriedly step -- surge? waft? -- back from Cas, but froze when that sent a ripple of something kind of like pain through him and, he thought, through Cas too.

"It's merely sharing," Cas repeated, surges of reassurance flowing over Dean with the words. "It has nothing to do with procreation."

"So, it's casual angel sex?" Dean... did something that might or might not have looked like a shrug, while trying very hard to forget how awesome the angel bad touch felt. "It's still sex, Cas. Not something you do to your pal without a little warning first, okay? Jeez."

"It is not 'angel sex', Dean," Cas said, and that exasperated tone that he sometimes got when he seemed to feel Dean was being particularly dense came through loud and clear even in these forms. "There's no proper human equivalent, but I would say it would be more like... hugging."

Dean snorted. Well, tried to. "Little too much 'inside each other' going on here for hugging, dude. Look, Cas, grateful for your help and everything, but you think you can help me get right back where I came from?"

He felt as much as witnessed Cas back off. It didn't hurt when he did it. "As you wish," Cas said. "It's simple really. You just concentrate on what it feels like to be in a human body and will yourself into that form."

And now he suspected he'd gone and hurt the angel's feelings. Nice one, Winchester. "Aww, Cas. Remember how you felt when you were all but human? It's not that there's anything wrong with being an angel. It's just... Well, if I was gonna find this easy, that dick would've never have done this to me."

"I'll speak to Gabriel about it," Cas told him. He seemed to be drawing his light back in until his usual human body started to show around it.

Dean felt an immediate sense of loss and found himself reaching out to that light before he quickly stopped himself. Christ, everything he'd seen and done in his life? This won the prize for 'freakiest', and on so many levels. He had to change back. He wasn't going to be able to make any sense of this insanity until he at least looked human again. So he shut whatever it was angels had for eyes and tried his best to feel fleshy.

A moment later, Cas said, "Open your eyes, Dean." Doing so, he looked down and saw his body just as it always looked. "Everything is back where it should be," Cas told him dryly. "Including your penis."

Dean reared back. "Hey. Glad as I am to hear it, maybe you should be paying less attention to little Dean, what with the inappropriate angel sex and all." Okay, it felt fricking awesome to have a body again. Even that short time without one had been just way too disturbing. "You don't want to prove Gabriel right, do you?"

"Prove him right about what?" Cas asked, tilting his head to the side curiously.

"He thinks we're-" Dean waved a hand about airily "-you know. Or that we should be."

"If I knew I wouldn't ask."

"Doing it," Dean said, feeling his cheeks flush and getting a little pissed off about it. "Like he claims he is with Sam."

"And 'it' would be?"

Dean widened his eyes with exasperation. "Sex, Cas."

Cas seemed to think that over for a moment then nodded. "I will speak to him about that as well. He could be conflating what he and Sam have, with our friendship. I know you don't think of me that way."

There was so many things wrong with that last pair of sentences that Dean didn't know where to begin. He sank down on the nearest bed. "Did I get out on the looking glass side of the bed this morning? Is that what's going on?"

That got him another of Cas' confused head tilts. "There are no mirrors involved in what Gabriel's done to you."

The ache, Dean realized, was starting again, which meant he was holding in too tight, again. He frowned and consciously tried to relax his control a little. "This sucks. Take me back to yesterday, Cas. World made sense then."

"You can time travel yourself now if you desire," Cas pointed out, "but I doubt it'll help."

"What will then? Shit, I can't believe that dick is boning Sammy. Or being boned." He couldn't work out which image was more disturbing. The height difference alone... He shook his head violently and looked up. "Cas, would you know if Gabriel used, y'know, angelic wiles on Sam?"

Yet another head tilt. "Angelic wiles?"

"Y'know, mind-fucks. Like the cupids did to my mom and dad."

"Gabriel is not a cupid," Cas pointed out.

"Answer the question, Cas." Dean said wearily. He guessed, now, he could just look at Sam's soul and see for himself, but no way was he doing that, not if he had a choice about it.

"You don't believe that Sam could be attracted to Gabriel without being 'mind-fucked'?"

Dean groaned, putting his head back into his hands. "Aww, Cas, don't you start. I never said that. Just give me a simple yes or no. Could you tell?"

Cas frowned at him. "If you didn't have a problem with Sam and Gabriel getting together, you wouldn't be looking for excuses to think it isn't real."

Dean looked up with an incredulous expression. "What the fuck does it matter if I have a problem with them or not? In what way does that stop you giving a straight fucking answer?"

"If I tell you that there is a way to see, and that there are no angelic wiles involved, what are you going to do then?" Cas asked.

"Be reassured?" Dean made a 'duh, expression and carried on staring at Cas. "Why're you being such a dick about this? It's not like Gabriel doesn't have a history of playing me and Sam like we're his own private muppet show. I just wanna know for sure Sam's in this of his own free will."

Cas looked at him for a long moment and then said, "Sam is in this of his own free will. I'm positive."

"Thank you. Now was that so hard?" Dean shook his head. As if he didn't have enough to deal with right now without Cas getting all up in his face. "You pissed with me for not wanting the two-wings and a halo gig or something?"

"It isn't you any more than being human was me," Cas told him.

"No. Yeah." Dean shot a grateful smile at Cas. "God, I need a drink." A horrible thought struck him. "Shit! Am I gonna have to drink a whole liquor store just to get a buzz?"

"Probably," Cas replied with just the hint of a smirk. Dean made a note to try and stop Cas from hanging around Gabriel so much. There was some bad influencing going on there.

"Oh, Gabriel so has it coming to him. I dunno how exactly I can out-prank a fricking demi-god, but I'll find a way," Dean promised, feeling angry all over again. He was about to think up aloud some novel uses for holy oil when he realized that'd probably just get Cas all pissy again, and that made him think about _why_ his angel was pissy in the first place. "Cas..." he started slowly.

"Yes, Dean?"

"You, uh, seemed kinda upset when you thought I wasn't A-OK with gay interspecies, uh, hijinks," he said cautiously. Not that he was saying he _was_ okay with it. He wasn't saying anything. Way too much going on to really process any of it right now. "And when I told you what Gabe thought about us, uh, doing it, you said you knew _I_ didn't think of _you_ that way, which kinda begs the question, dude...." He gave Cas a pointed look, hoping he didn't have to actually state said question aloud.

Cas suddenly seemed to find something very interesting outside the window. "Gabriel was not imagining everything," he said in his most formal Angel of the Lord tones.

"Huh." Dean stared at Cas' side, having no idea what to say. The surge of something unidentifiable he felt on hearing Cas' words left him even more speechless. Then something in his eyes or, for crissakes, his _grace_ seemed to click, and suddenly he was looking not at the arm of a trenchcoat, but at the edge of huge, pulled in wings. "Fuck!"

Cas' expression became a good imitation of forbidding stone. "I was wise to not mention it before."

"What? No! No, Cas, don't you dare disappear!" Dean said, getting to his feet and striding over to the window as the wings he saw started to flare. He grabbed Cas' arm. "I was cussing 'cause I'm having angel-eyesight issues, not because... well, 'cause of what you said."

Cas didn't exactly relax, but his wings seemed to settle down at least. "What sort of issues?"

"Well, like, I can see these," Dean said, patting the dark wings in question. "That's new, to say the least."

He felt Cas' wings ripple under his fingers, what felt like feathers ruffling around where he touched. "Dean."

"Yeah?" Dean said, kind of distracted by how Cas' wings felt. So hard to believe these had been there all the time. They felt so real. The feathers were the same color as Cas' hair -- Jimmy's hair -- was that coincidence, or did it happen that way?

"Remember accusing me of having angel sex with you earlier?" Cas asked in a weird tone.

"Yeah, what-? Oh fuck." Dean scooted backwards across the room. In fact, he kind of flew back, but he wasn't gonna think about that right now. He could feel his all-too-human face burning. "Dude, I'm sorry! I didn't know!"

Cas' wings continued to sort of.... rustle as he turned to face him. "I didn't think you did."

"So, like, wings are angel junk?" Dean looked down at his hands. "Christ, no wonder you're all so fricking smug," he muttered.

"Not every being is as obsessed with size as the average human male," Cas told him, almost primly. Though Dean thought he knew Cas well enough to hear the hint of smugness underneath.

Dean reminded himself he didn't need to feel intimidated, thanks to meddling archangels. He twisted around, trying to see his own wings, but they didn't seem to be there. "How do I...?"

"Get them up?"

Dean gave Cas a hard look while he tried to decide whether the wording had been deliberate or not. "If you like."

"You just..." Dean could see Cas flex his shoulders and then his wings unfurled fully, spanning the entire hotel room.

Dean just stared, his mouth open. He wondered, not for the first time, just why a being so made of awesome would spend most of his time hanging out with two human hunters. It just didn't make sense.

"Dean?"

He shook his head, turning to the side. "Nothing. Uh, nothing. Just... takes some getting used to."

Cas pulled his wings in again in response. "I don't mean to make you feel uncomfortable. My apologies."

"I'm not... I mean, this whole situation is crazy, but it's not you making me uncomfortable." And if ever a word was an understatement. He glanced at Cas. "Can't you get him to turn me back, Cas? Please?"

"Sam probably has a better chance of that than I do," Cas told him, "but I will try."

*****

Gabriel started talking the second he moved them to their own room, trying to head off the lecture he knew he was in for. "He's fine, Sam. Castiel will talk him through it."

Sam pulled a face that didn't suit him. "You know, Gabriel, I'm not sure that's the point here," he said sarcastically. "I think, maybe, the point might be YOU TURNED MY BROTHER INTO A DIFFERENT SPECIES WITHOUT HIS PERMISSION!"

Gabriel winced; Sam could get an impressive amount of volume for a mere human. "Well, duh," he said. "If I'd asked, he would've just said no."

The muscles in Sam's jaw were doing that twitchy thing. "Yeah, see, this is exactly where your thinking is twisted. If you knew he'd say 'no', you knew he didn't want it, and if he didn't want it, you shouldn't have done it! We agreed no tricks, Gabe."

"Sometimes 'it's for your own good' actually is true," Gabriel replied, moving to flop on the bed. With a snap he conjured up a chocolate bar and began to unwrap it. "Besides, he deserved it."

"No, he didn't," Sam said with a sigh, watching Gabriel. "I don't care what he did or said; he didn't deserve to have you do this to him. If you and I are gonna work, dude, you've got to treat me, and the people I care about, with respect."

Gabriel frowned and focused on his chocolate bar. "He accused me of raping you, Sam."

"He-" Sam sat down on the edge of the bed. "He what?"

"There's no way you'd voluntarily get involved with me, after all. So I had to have angel-whammied you, or something worse." He scowled at the innocent chocolate. That had hurt more than he wanted to admit.

"Oh God." Sam put his hand on Gabriel's leg and squeezed gently. "Okay, I get why you got a little smite-y. He's an ass. It still wasn't right, what you did. But, yeah, ass." He shook his head ruefully. "This is my fault for putting off telling him. Surprise news always brings out his his inner dick. Or it does if it's news about me, anyway. How did he find out?"

"It just sorta.... came up, okay?" Which was a much better answer than simply admitting he blurted it out.

Sam gave him a wry and knowing look. "Sure it did." He snorted and moved further onto the bed, leaning back against the headboard beside Gabriel. "Knew it was a mistake to allow you two to go out together unattended. Did you at least solve the case?"

"Just about. Can have it all wrapped up in a snap." He waggled his eyebrows at Sam and smiled, relaxing as Sam dialed it back to under eleven. "Literally."

"What does that mean exactly?" Sam asked, narrowing his eyes.

"I saved the latest victim before I followed Dean back here. And put the fear of Dad into them while I was at it, which they totally needed. Tagged the demon so I can find him again later, but figured dealing with Dean-o's freakout was a little bit more important just now."

"So it _was_ a demon. Thought so," Sam said with what sounded like satisfaction. Then he sighed. "Guess I should go apologize to Dean for not telling him, while you change him back."

"Not yet," Gabriel said, reaching out to hold Sam on the bed. "Give 'em some time."

Sam didn't resist being pulled back, but he pointed out, "You said it yourself; he's freaking out. You've made your point, whatever the hell it was. Now put him right."

"You don't get it do you?" Gabriel leaned closer, deliberately dropping his voice to a conspiratorial tone. "At the moment, he's having to rely on Castiel's help. He's getting to _see_ my little bro in all his angel glory. If they don't end up doing something more than eye-fucking after all this, I'll give up chocolate for a week."

Sam opened his mouth as if about to speak, but then paused, looking thoughtful. Gabriel took a peek at those thoughts. As he suspected, Sam's head was full of the memory of seeing the unfettered everyone's favorite archangel for the first time.

Gabriel smirked. "Go ahead. You can tell me I'm brilliant as well as handsome. It won't go to my head."

Sam twisted on the bed and loomed over Gabriel, a crooked grin on his face. "I'm prepared to admit you may have a point," he said, putting a hand low on Gabriel's chest and slowly sliding it upwards. "There's something about the sight of enormous wings..."

"Yeah?" Gabriel grinned as he shifted just enough to manifest said wings, even if he was only able to half unfurl them in the confines of the motel room. "What?"

Sam's expression was now one Gabriel had been learning to recognize and appreciate over the last two months. He blinked his eyes slowly, like a cat, then moved his hand to stroke over the nearest feathers. "Oh, I _so_ have a kink," he muttered, almost to himself.

As always, Sam touching his wings made Gabriel's eyes half-close in pleasure. "I'm all for indulging your kinky side. Especially when it involves you and my wings."

"Good thing really," Sam said, stretching his arm over Gabriel to reach as far down the wing as he could. "You better be right about Dean and Cas."

"Course I am," Gabriel said, moving his wing so Sam could reach it easier, attention already drifting away from the conversation. "And if not, I'll just do something else 'til they clue in."

"No, you won't," Sam said with apparent confidence as he moved astride Gabriel and began to slide a hand along either wing, combing his fingers between feathers. "Not if you want more of this."

Sam had got extremely good at that extremely fast. "You cut me off, you cut yourself off too," Gabriel pointed out.

"I've done worse for Dean," Sam pointed out right back, and he had a point, but intentionally or not, he softened it by leaning down to kiss Gabriel.

Gabriel reached up and tangled his fingers in Sam's hair, holding him in place and kissing him breathless. "Guess we both better hope they finally come to their senses then, or we could end up having an awkward discussion."

"Oh, shut up," Sam said before diving right back into the kiss.

*****

"Nice wings, dude," Sam said, coming into the motel room. Dean turned to glare at him and knocked a display of leaflets, an ashtray and Sam's case notes straight onto the floor with an uncontrolled sweep of those wings.

"Fuck," he said succinctly, his glare at Sam probably now more than a little pathetic. Having finally mastered the art of 'getting them up', he seemed to now need another lesson, one in 'getting them down again before you smash down the walls'. "Hope to hell you've come with good news."

"Gabriel's promised he'll change you back." Sam paused. 'Eventually."

"Eventually," Dean repeated darkly. Knowing Gabriel, it would be just when Dean finally got the hang of things and started enjoying himself. "Thanks, bro. Appreciate you using your influence to get me the help I need."

"What did you expect when you start accusing archangels of molesting me?" Sam asked, pulling out a chair at the table, turning it around and sitting down. "Rape, Dean? Really?"

Dean did his best to pull the fricking wings back in before he completely wrecked the joint. And yeah, okay, so he felt a twinge of guilt at Sam's stupid, big-eyed, earnest look that was being aimed his way right now, but that didn't change the fact that, "You never told me, Sammy. What was I supposed to think?"

"I should have told you. That's my bad," Sam admitted. "But... it was nice to have something that was totally good just for me. Just for a while." He looked up at Dean with those damned puppy eyes. "Y'know?"

"Wings, Sammy," Dean said, gesturing with his thumbs to behind his back. He felt he didn't need any more words to make his point.

"He could've done a lot worse."

"Yeah, and he has," Dean pointed out. "Seems the reformed Trickster isn't so reformed after all. You've gotta-" His vision suddenly did that same clicking into focus it'd done with Cas, only this time it wasn't wings he was seeing. "Oh Christ, no." Dean turned away in a hurry, cheeks burning, feeling like he'd caught himself absentmindedly giving his brother the bad touch.

"Dean?" Sam was halfway out of his chair, a concerned look on his face.

Dean put up a hand hurriedly, turning away further. "Sam, stop. Stay away."

Sam froze, and Dean didn't need to be looking at him to know he was wearing a stricken expression. "What's wrong?"

"I can see it," Dean hissed. "And I don't know how to stop seeing it."

"See what?" Sam stepped closer. "What are you seeing?"

" _It_ ," Dean repeated, stretching out his arm to stop Sam coming closer still. "Your _soul_." All this time Cas had been staring into Dean's soul, sometimes for hours at a time, and Dean had never realized 'til now just how fricking intimate a thing that was. There was no chance he was making a mistake here. He might never have seen, really seen, a human soul before, but once seen there could be no doubt.

If anything, Sam looked more stricken. "Is it... It's that bad?"

"What? No!" Dean made the mistake of looking full-on at Sam, wanting to reassure him, but had to immediately close his eyes tight shut. "I mean, how would I know? Got nothing to compare it to, dude. It's not that. It's like I... Hell, it feels like I've got my hands down your pants, okay?" He screwed up his face to go with his eyes.

Sam's eyes widened. "You're getting off on... Dude, that's sick!"

"What? Jesus, Sam, no!" Dean forced himself to open his eyes a crack. "Getting off is the fricking last thing I'm doing here! I'm trying to tell you I can see something that no way no how should I be able to!"

"Is that something all angels walk around seeing all the time?" The more Dean was freaking out, the calmer Sam seemed to be getting.

"I dunno," Dean said, screwing his face up further. "I mean, Cas seems to like to delve deep, but if he can turn it on and off, that's a trick I've yet to learn." Jesus, it was amazing Cas wanted anything to do with Dean at all, if he was seeing Dean the way Dean could now see Sam. "It's like, I just look at you, and I know you. _Really_ know. You dig?"

Sam just shrugged. "You've always _really_ known me. And frankly, I have a lot less problem with you ogling my soul than most of those winged dicks."

"You don't get it, Sammy," Dean said, but he was giving in, opening his eyes and just letting himself see the golden swirling haze inside Sam. He could read it somehow, like a language he never knew he knew. "There's nothing I can't see: every secret little thought, every dark desire." He lifted his eyes to meet his brother's. "Stuff we just don't talk about _ever_. Stuff we never admit to."

"But you say it's not bad," Sam still seemed calm, but Dean could tell he wanted reassurance on that point. "I mean, you're not calling me 'Abomination' or anything."

Dean shook his head. "Relax, man. It's not demon-y. I mean, _you're_ not demon-y. Far as I can tell there's no evil vibe coming off you at all." He put his hand on Sam's shoulder. "You're all right."

He felt Sam relax underneath his touch. "Okay," he said softly then met Dean's eyes with his most earnest gaze. "Then I really don't see what the problem is."

"Don't you?" Dean asked weakly. He looked down at the golden, snaking cords that seemed to connect them to each other and blew softly down on them and shivered. "Feel that?" He certainly did.

Sam looked a little startled, but nothing more than that. "Yeah. Was that... you?"

"Yeah." He let his hand slide over and through the cords and found himself stepping back in a hurry, feeling things that... that were just a little too much like angel not-sex for comfort. "This is too much," he muttered darkly, turning away from Sam in a hurry. "Make him turn me back, bro. For both our sakes."

*****

Gabriel was eating breakfast when the expected visit from his little brother came. "Hey Castiel," he greeted him with a grin. "Waffles?"

Castiel frowned at Gabriel's plate as if it contained all the evils of the world. "You indulge yourself too much, Gabriel."

"You don't indulge yourself enough," Gabriel countered easily. "And I bet you didn't last night either."

If anything, Castiel's frown lines deepened, hearing Gabriel's words. "You've run wild for too many centuries with no authority to guide you. You've never learned self-control."

"You think I should walk around with a stick up my ass, like you?"

Castiel shot an exasperated looking gaze up into the corner of the ceiling. "Why does everybody-" He seemed to stop himself. "Your poor impulse control is causing Dean distress."

"You mean he's still freaking," Gabriel translated, snapping up some more maple syrup for his waffles.

"What did you expect?" Castiel asked almost caustically.

Gabriel made a show of thinking it over. "Pretty much this. I mean, I'd hoped you'd actually buy a clue and do something, but I wasn't expecting you to. Not yet."

"Do something," Castiel repeated, not sounding any less pissy. "What is it you'd have me do, Gabriel?"

Gabriel pointed his fork at Castiel. "Do you love Dean?" he asked bluntly.

"Of course," Castiel said, looking taken aback. Then his shoulders slumped. "Oh, you mean like you 'love' Sam."

"Yeah, though you guys seem to have a hard time believing I actually do. I suppose because I didn't spend years staring at him in an inappropriate manner first."

Castiel's chin lifted. "I do not stare at Dean inappropriately."

Gabriel laughed outright at that. "Not if you're planning on stripping him naked and having hot animal sex for the next three days, you're not. "

"Gabriel!" Castiel sounded scandalized. "Dean and I- That is, Dean-" He frowned. "Tell me that's not what all this is about."

"There's other reasons, but yeah," Gabriel said. "Trying to get you two past your denial is a big part of it."

Castiel strode forward, right into Gabriel's space, and grabbed a handful of Gabriel's jacket. "Tell me what business," he said in a low growl, "our 'denial'," he went on, clenching the material harder, "is of yours?"

Gabriel was actually pleased to see an emotional display from Castiel, even if it was manifesting as threatening him. It made it even easier to smile at him and reply sincerely, "Because you're my little brother, and I want you to be happy."

Castiel maintained his glare for several long seconds, but Gabriel could see Castiel's anger was faltering. Then it collapsed altogether, and Gabriel's jacket was released as Castiel turned abruptly away. "Dean isn't interested in anything beyond friendship. If he's aware at all of the profundity of the bond between us, he's not willing to take it further."

Well, at least he'd finally got one of them to admit their feelings. Gabriel considered it progress. "He is," he assured Castiel, reaching out and laying a hand on his shoulder. "He's just still tying himself in knots about it. What with the self-esteem issues and the identity issues and the 'he can't possibly want me' issues..."

"Not to mention the 'that dick made me into an angel' issues," Castiel said, deadpan. "You're wrong anyway, or not completely right. His soul wants me. His conscious mind is horrified by the idea. I've come to terms with this, Gabriel. You had no right to interfere." He says it gently, a mild reproach.

"One thing I've learned about humans, bro," Gabriel told him. "Sometimes they need to be pushed into doing what they really want to do, what they should do." He spread his hands innocently. "I'm just being the facilitator."

"Turn him back," Castiel said implacably. "You've played God enough. It can't be comfortable, anyway, having so large a portion of your grace grafted to another."

"I'm not above suffering for a good reason," Gabriel said, not surprised that Castiel had figured out how he'd pulled this trick off.

"This isn't a good reason."

"It's the best reason there is," Gabriel told him with a smile. "And before we're done, you'll agree with me."

"Gabriel," Castiel said, his head tipping slightly and his tone almost pained. "Drop it. Please. You'll achieve nothing but driving Dean and I further apart."

"It's going to work." Gabriel reached up and patted Castiel's cheek, feeling just a shade of guilt at being the cause of his distress. "Trust me on this, Castiel."

Castiel just stared.

*****

"You're doing it again."

Dean froze. "I'm not," he lied.

"You are," Sam told him, looking up at him with that earnest expression from where he was sitting watching Dean pace.

Dean sat down on the edge of the opposite bed, his shoulders hunched. He screwed up his face and looked away from Sam. "It's like an itch I can't scratch, not without-" He halfheartedly waved a hand.

"It's okay," Sam said, leaning forward, but not reaching out to him. Possibly because the last time he had, Dean had flinched back before he could stop himself.

"It's not." How many times had people told him that he and Sam were too close, co-dependent or whatever shit? Hell, how many times had they been taken for a couple? Well, now he could see it for himself. This, between them? This couldn't be normal. This was taking things Dean had kept hidden so damn deep that not even _he_ knew they were there most of the time and dragging them right up to the surface. "Not okay at all."

"Why?" Sam asked bluntly.

Dean looked up at him. "You _know_ why. Nothing's changed, Sammy. Angel or not, I'm still your older brother, and there's things that brothers don't get to do, not to each other, not unless they're fricking monsters."

"You're not doing anything we don't already do, though. Just-" Sam waved a hand at where Dean's wings were "-with a little extra angel juice. We are what we are. I gave up on trying to be normal a while back. It was never going to happen anyway."

It suddenly occurred to Dean that maybe he was the only one to feel his touch on their bonds -- or whatever the fuck those cords of energy really were -- as a bad touch kind of touch. Maybe Sam just felt it like... like that 'hugging' of Cas' that Dean had also found way too intimate. He felt himself flush as he looked away from his brother again.

It was his twisted psyche twisting everything he experienced in turn. Alistair had known this was in him, had used it, but since Cas had dragged him out of Hell, Dean had been so careful never to think of that one torment, out of all the different tortures and mind-fucks Alistair had played him with. Yeah, so the teenage Sam had once... But everyone got experimental during adolescence, and God knows, Dean had put a halt to that quick enough. It took someone truly fucked up to... to turn the touch of an angel into child abuse.

"Dean." Somewhere during his freakout Sam had changed seats and was now sitting beside him. "Come on. Stop freaking out long enough to talk to me."

He should have moved away. He should have stood up and moved away, but he didn't. Instead he dropped his head into his hands. First Cas, now Sam. Just what the hell kind of lesson was Gabriel trying to teach him here?

Sam reached out and laid a hand on his shoulder, fingers brushing the edges of Dean's wings. He heard Sam's inhale of breath at the action, and he felt... Dean felt what Cas must have felt when Dean had done something similar to him.

Dean pulled his wings in as tight as he could manage. "I'm so fucked. So totally fucked." Being an angel should be all about righteousness and holy orders and all that heavenly crap. Trust Dean to make it all about fricking sex from start to finish.

Beside him, Sam hesitated then reached out and deliberately ran his hand along the edge of Dean's wing again.

Dean straightened bolt upright, a tremor shocking along his wings and through his body. "Sam, don't. Please." _Please, do it again._ "You gotta know. I mean, you and Gabriel... I mean, Cas, Cas said, uh..."

"That grooming wings is pretty intimate?" Sam filled in. "I know."

Dean looked at his brother helplessly. "And you still did it?" His breath was short, his dick was... not something he wanted to think about right now, and somewhere deep inside of him, something was glowing. "Sammy, really?"

Sam shrugged. "You always seem to think you're in this particular mess alone." He met Dean's gaze unflinching. "You're not. You never have been."

"It's wrong." Dean flinched as his own hand came into view, rising up to touch Sam's face. "You've gotta know that."

Sam gave him a small smile. "We've done worse."

Ain't that the truth. "Doesn't make this right," Dean said in a low voice as he let his hand drop back into those snaking golden cords between them to _touch_. He groaned and let his eyes half-close. "Doesn't make this anything but what it is, a fucked up mess. Aww, Sammy, I can feel you."

Sam's head was tilted back, his expression close to beatific. "Yeah. Me too."

"Christ." Dean could feel himself on the verge of losing all control. He couldn't remember anything ever feeling this good ever before. "Tell me to stop," he pleaded, pushing his hand slowly through the cords until it was flat against Sam's chest. "Sammy, please. Tell me to stop."

In response, Sam made sure he had Dean's eyes on him and deliberately slid his fingers into the feathers of Dean's nearest wing.

*****

"He-" Castiel was pacing now, worked up into some kind of controlled desperation apparently by Gabriel's refusal to stop things in progress. "I gave everything for- I can't." He stopped pacing and turned to glare again at Gabriel. "Just tell me what I have to do to make you stop this."

Gabriel thought it over. As much as he knew this was going to turn out to be a good thing, he wasn't so heartless as to be unaffected by Castiel's desperation. "I tell ya what," he finally said. "I'll turn Dean back to normal after you tell him how you feel. How you _really_ feel."

"He already knows," Castiel claimed, chin lifted. "So you can turn him back now."

"No, I don't think he does. Not how you really feel."

"I told him that you weren't wrong about me, about how I feel about him." Castiel stepped closer. "You've already won this game, brother. Don't destroy a friendship out of greed for even more."

Gabriel sighed. "You and Dean-o are a matched pair, all right. Both of you think the other couldn't possibly want you."

"Dean is not Sam, Gabriel. Sam will do things that Dean wouldn't consider."

It was getting to the point where Gabriel just wanted to reach out and shake his brother. Or possibly lock him and Dean in a closet somewhere until they bought a clue. Of course, Dean would probably starve to death first. Stubborn asses, the both of them. "So, what? You're just going to spend eternity pining for him from a distance?"

"Friendship is sufficient. I don't require-"

And that was a load of bullshit if Gabriel had ever heard one. He reached out and gently carded his fingers through Castiel's wings, Castiel's _grace_. "You don't need what? This? Sharing with someone you care about?"

Castiel shuddered, full body, full expanse of wing. "Stop," he staggered out. "Stop toying with us."

"It's not toying. Look at me, Castiel," Gabriel bade. "Look into my grace. You can see why I'm doing this."

Castiel looked, then tipped his head and stared. "Gabriel," he said slowly. "I... I'm just a soldier. I-" He stared some more.

It took effort not to pull away and hide from Castiel's regard; it had been a very long time since Gabriel had shared like this with any other angel. "You're the only brother I have left who's worth the name."

Stare unwavering, Castiel seemed to pull himself to attention. "I'm sorry. I should not have doubted your sincerity."

Gabriel shrugged, feeling uncharacteristically shy now that Castiel was really seeing him. "Hey, who could blame ya? Being insincere has kinda been my bread and butter."

Castiel, also apparently feeling uncharacteristically hesitant, reached out with a tentative hand to touch Gabriel's shoulder, close to but not touching his wing. "What do you want from me?" he asked. "What would you _like_?"

The question took Gabriel aback. "I'm not doing this for me," he protested.

"Yes, you are," Castiel said with sudden confidence. "You're doing this for all four of us."

Maybe he was, but it was a lot easier to think about the others in this situation. "I want you to tell Dean how you really feel, what you really want. He's not going to take that leap if you don't."

"And will you tell him how _you_ feel?" Castiel asked, head tipped and standing closer still. "About all of us?"

"I told Sam, didn't I?" Gabriel said. Of course Sam was easy compared to Dean in these kind of matters.

"Very well," Castiel said with something that looked like the illegitimate baby of a smirk as he moved his hand around the curve of Gabriel's shoulder. "I'll tell Sam how I feel about Dean."

"That's not what I meant."

"You could let him in," Castiel said, stepping so close that they were pretty much touching. "Like you did me, let him see. He would understand, like I just did, how much we've misjudged you."

"That isn't why I did this," Gabriel protested. "Besides, he has my grace; I'm not sure he could use part of me to see me."

"He's making it his own. The more he learns to do, the more his grace feels like his human soul and not like... you." There was a slight edge to that 'you', Gabriel noticed. Castiel hadn't liked sensing Gabriel inside Dean.

If ever there was proof about how Castiel felt, that was it right there. "You don't like the idea of me being that close to Dean," Gabriel pointed out.

Castiel looked away, down. "It's jealousy, I assume. I'd hoped it didn't show."

It probably wouldn't, not unless someone was looking for it like Gabriel was, which gave him an idea. "You should use that," he said. "If you don't want to come right out and tell Dean how you feel, at least tell him you're jealous that I got my grace all over him."

Castiel gave him an uneasy look. "That seems mildly duplicitous. Once you've changed him back, I'll try a greater level of explicitness about my... feelings for him. For now, he has enough to cope with."

*****

"Sammy, Sammy..." Dean's face was buried in his brother's neck, his wings flared out, Sam's fingers interwoven with his feathers. He felt like he was on fire, a fire that burned but didn't consume, a fire that raged, uncontrolled and growing, expanding, a fire that was _them_ , him and Sam. It'd always been there, a low glowing ember, but they'd got no right stoking it up, and now... now...

Sam made a noise that was very close to a growl, while fingers carded almost too roughly through wingfeathers. "Dean." Just a single word, but he sounded so wrecked, so _debauched_...

Fuck. Oh fuck. Dean's breath was coming in shuddering gasps, his lips wet against Sam's skin. His hand was under Sam's shirts, pressed skin to skin, but his grace... his grace went so much deeper. He was inside Sam, mingling -- fricking _mingling_ \-- with the essential Sam. And he had to stop. He totally, no argument, had to stop. So why wasn't he stopping?

Why wasn't Sam? More than just not stopping, Sam seemed to be trying to get even more, his very essence wrapping around Dean's grace the way his fingers were grabbing onto Dean's wings, as if even this wasn't close enough for him.

Their bodies were closer too, Dean realized, trying desperately to drag his attention back out into the outside world again. Dean was almost lying down, half on, half off the bed, and Sam was leaning over him, arms spread to touch as much of Dean's wings as he could get to. Their legs were entangled, and when the fuck had that happened? If anyone were to walk in now... Or, oh God, fly in? "Sam. Sam. We can't... We have to..."

Sam pulled back enough to meet Dean's eyes, his own wide and dark with things that should never be directed Dean's way, but that Dean couldn't help but react viscerally to seeing them.

He shut his own eyes tight, screwing them up, trying for at least enough control not to simply reach out and take all Sam seemed to be offering him. Things he'd only ever dared admit to himself he wanted in dreams. Like Cas. Oh fuck, just like Cas. What the hell had Gabriel done to him? He opened his eyes again and met his brother's heated gaze. "You know we have to stop," he said wretchedly, even as his free hand seemed to be traveling up Sam's bent leg without his permission. "The angels..."

"The angels already know how we feel about each other," Sam replied, close enough that Dean could feel the warmth of his breath with each word. "Hell, the entire universe knows how we feel about each other. It's about as far from a secret as you can get."

"Sammy, don't you do this," Dean said, pretty much begged, giving up on trying to focus on his brother; they were too close, way too close. He slid his hand up into Sam's hair, meaning, he thought, to tug Sam back, but instead he found himself transfixed by the feel of the hair in his hand, Sam's ridiculous hair, soft and... oh God, their lips were way too close.

Sam's fingers clenched in Dean's wings, and Dean's fingers tightened in Sam's hair. Soul and grace seemed to weave themselves together within them. Dean took a shuddering breath.

"Dean," Sam breathed, and it was prayer and plea and caress all in one word. A tone so intimate that it made the kiss that followed seem like a foregone conclusion.

*****

"It's okay to be a little selfish, y'know," Gabriel told his brother, ignoring yet another request to turn Dean back again. "To want Dean."

"It's futile," Castiel said, starting to sound pissed off again. "Much like this conversation."

"It's not. I don't do futile-" Gabriel paused "-joining with you guys to help stop the Apocalypse notwithstanding. And we did, so... not futile."

Castiel rubbed his forehead with a few straightened fingers, his expression pained. "Gabriel, I understand that you want the four of us to be as close as you and the other archangels once were, but the Winchesters are -- current 'tricks' aside -- human and short-lived, and I am far below you in rank and power. We can't ever be for you what you want."

Gabriel felt a brief flare of irritation and hurt at that. "It's not about rank and power. It's never been about that. That was Lucifer's fixation, not mine."

"If you allow yourself to love Sam so entirely, you'll either have to artificially stop him aging, or be prepared to soon experience significant pain." There was a kind of hollowness to Castiel's voice as he said that. It was obviously he knew he faced the same choice.

"Only if the package means more than the contents." Gabriel felt the urge to reach out and shake his brother. "Human souls are just as immortal as we are."

Castiel stepped forward, staring intently. "So you intend to return to Heaven when Sam dies? There's no guarantee they'll even let him in. Or will you force him to stay sundered here on Earth? Do you think he'd thank you for that? How do you think they'll feel, Gabriel, growing ever older, weaker, more feeble minded, while we remain unchanging, complacent in our immortality, in a Father who brings us back repeatedly? Do you think, maybe, they might one day decide that we never truly loved them? That we were just playing with them? Because this mortal flesh might mean little to you and me, but it's profoundly involved in their self-concepts. You see, I have thought about these things, brother. More than you'll ever realize."

"More like you've overthought it," Gabriel told him. He sighed, quite easily picturing Castiel going over and over this, each time seeing things as a little bit more hopeless until he'd convinced himself it could only all end in tears. "There's a way around every one of those objections. I'll go wherever Sam goes. If he wants to stay on Earth, I'll stay. If he wants to go to Heaven, I'll follow. If they won't let him in, well, nobody knows more back doors up there than I do. They won't be able to keep him out any more than they could keep me out. Or Dean either because I know those two are a package deal."

Castiel seemed to hesitate, rocking back ever so slightly, but then the intense stare was back, and he was saying, "And if Sam asks you to keep him, his flesh, young? Will you do that? I'm not attacking you with these questions, Gabriel. I've already answered them myself. I know what I'd do because I've already done it. Without being asked."

"If that's what he wants," Gabriel said easily. "Dad knows, those two have had a shitload of crap dumped on them because of angels and destiny. Seems only fair that they get some good out of it too." He smiled and reached out to lay a hand on Castiel's shoulder. "That would be where you come in, bro."

"I don't have whatever it is that could make Dean happy," Castiel said, starting to step back, but then pausing, turning his head to direct a puzzled look at Gabriel's reaching arm. "I can only make his life... easier. I do what I can." Castiel reached out his own arm to touch Gabriel's shoulder in turn.

Gabriel couldn't help but smile. Castiel really was all that was good in their kind. If more angels were like him, things would be a lot better upstairs. "You underestimate yourself, Castiel. You're exactly what would make Dean happy. Well, you, Sam, his car and an endless supply of pie. But you're a vital part of the equation."

"And you," Cas said suddenly, tipping his head. "For this to be what you want it to be, you have become part of that list too."

He knew that, and he was doing his best to work towards it, but he didn't want to get his hopes up too high. "Well, yeah," he said with a lopsided smirk. "If you all decide you want to keep me around."

"Once he realizes how happy you make Sam, he'll start to consider you family too." Castiel said it confidently, proving maybe how well he knew Dean in matters that didn't directly concern Dean's feelings for him. "There may be jealousy first though. The brothers' bond is... Well, we've spoken of it before." He smiled wryly, a worldly expression at odds with the simplicity of his next statement. "I would like to 'keep you around'."

"Even though there's all that rank and power difference?" Gabriel asked with a raised eyebrow. He was sure he knew the answer, but some part of him still wanted -- maybe even needed -- to hear it.

Castiel looked down. "It confuses me. Archangels have never..." He stopped and seemed to take stock. "You were always different," he said when he looked up. "When Lucifer trapped me, he wasn't even sure of my name, but when I invaded your TV land trap, you remembered me, didn't you? From all those many centuries ago when I was just one of your many foot soldiers in Jericho."

"Course I did," Gabriel said, the memory of that so very _earnest_ young angel still very clear in his mind. "You asked questions, intelligent questions at that. Kinda knew you were something special, even back then."

Castiel's stare grew more intense than ever, though his expression seemed uncertain. He seemed to be searching Gabriel with all his senses, maybe looking for signs that Gabriel was sincere about this. If so, he must have found them because he abruptly stepped closer, much closer, his true form starting to emanate out from the vessel's flesh and reach out to Gabriel.

And really, what else could Gabriel do but reach back?

As their graces touched, Castiel sighed softly. Gabriel echoed the sigh and moved closer physically, reaching out to cup the back of Castiel's neck as he rested their foreheads together. "Trust me, bro. You deserve some happy for yourself too."

Castiel didn't answer, not with words, but his grace embraced Gabriel's, moving through and around, and it surged with affection and... gratitude?

It was then the door slammed open as hard as if it'd been kicked.

As the angels drew hurriedly apart, pulling their graces back inside their vessels, Sam barged in and glared at them both. He was red-faced and clench-jawed, his hand going up into his hair to tug at it. "He's not here?" he demanded.

"Who?" Gabriel asked, a little dazed at being yanked back from something so intimate. A second later, his brain caught up. "Dean?"

Sam gave him a twitchy looking stare. "He flew off. He... Uh. I have to find him."

"Did you fight?" Castiel asked, stepping toward Sam, who half-stepped back from him, looking kind of caught.

The look in Sam's eyes tipped Gabriel off. "It wasn't a fight," he said. "Just the opposite, am I right?"

Sam turned beseeching eyes on him. "Gabe, please. I have to find him. I... pushed, too hard and too fast. I'm an idiot."

Geez, how did anyone ever resist that expression. "All right," he said, automatically reaching out with his Grace to soothe the agitation he felt in Sam's soul. "Calm down. We'll find him, don't worry."

Castiel took a step closer. "How, exactly, did you push him, Sam?"

Sam's gaze flickered between the angels, landing back on Gabriel. "Uh," he said helpfully.

Gabriel sighed. "Always did have a wing-kink, didn't you, kid?"

"You touched his wings?" Castiel said, sounding confused. "But you have to have known from Gabriel that..." He trailed off and stepped back. "Ah. I see," he said in a totally dispassionate voice. "I can't find an angel who doesn't want to be found. Gabriel is the only one who can do that, due to the grace link."

"Cas," Sam said, now trying the puppy dog routine on him. "Don't be... I mean, not with him. He's just lost and confused, and I..." He pulled a face. "I kinda took advantage."

"I never thought otherwise," Castiel said coldly. He stared at Gabriel. "Is this all part of your plan?"

"Can you dial the jealousy back a little?" Gabriel asked. "It's not like you didn't know how it is between those two. Or that it changes anything between you and Dean. And you," he said, turning to face Sam and pinning him in place with a pointed finger. "Stop acting like you molested your brother against his will. I told you, sharing grace isn't something that can be forced, not like that."

"I kissed him," Sam said with a kind of shaky defiance, like he was 'fessing up to some terrible murder. Then he looked down and added in a mumble, "And he kissed back. To start with."

A slight noise came from Castiel, hearing that. He turned his back to them both, and his wings began to flare.

"Or for..." Gabriel muttered. He stalked over to Castiel and sent out a brief pulse of grace as he tugged gently on his brother's wing. "Stop that. You can have your own 'kiss Dean and freak out' session later."

"He wants you, Cas," Sam said earnestly from behind them. "I promise. I've never known him to care for anyone not family the way he cares about you. It's just... he shoves feelings he thinks he shouldn't have real deep. Uses them as ammo against himself when he's listing all the ways he's wrong and fucked up in his head, but other than that he never touches them, pretends they don't exist. He thinks it's wrong, you see. To want you."

And to want _me_ was the unspoken addition to that. Sam might as well have said it though as it seemed so loud in the room.

Castiel's shoulders sagged. "Find him, brother," he said quietly.

Gabriel looked from one of them to the other, not really wanting to leave either of them alone right now, but Dean was the priority. He had to be. Gabriel sighed, rubbed his hand over his face. "I'll go find him and drag his panicked ass home, and then we're _all_ going to sit down and have a nice long chat about all of this. And no one is going to leave until it's over, even if I have to snap us into a pocket dimension to do it."

"Just find him," Sam said, putting his hand on Gabriel's sleeve. "And quickly. He's not enough in control of himself to be out there, freaking out alone."

Gabriel nods. "You two play nice while I'm gone," he said. Then he reached out to find the part of his grace that was on loan to Dean Winchester and willed himself there.

*****

Dean didn't have a clue where he was. All he knew was it was the first place he could find in his mad dash around the globe that didn't have people in it, people he could accidentally hurt. It was a mountainside, rocky with sparse green bits; he knew that much. And in human-form it was fricking freezing, but other than that, he hadn't a clue.

He was sat on a large rock, trying very hard not to think about anything. That had worked for a little while, like a few seconds, because angel senses made his surroundings that much more beautiful. Even in his fucked up state he couldn't help to stare in awe for a few moments. But then he remembered lying under Sam in the motel room, the touch of Sam's lips, and everything seemed to darken.

He heard a sudden rush of wind and angel wings and looked up to see Gabriel standing in front of him, arms crossed over his chest. "So on a scale of one to ten, how freaked out are you?"

Well, it was clear Gabriel knew what had happened. Sam never did know when to keep his mouth shut... or unattached to other people's. "Laugh it up," Dean said dully, looking away again. "Joke's on me. You win."

But Gabriel didn't laugh, or mock, or do any of the things Dean was expecting. Instead he came and sat beside him. "I like this place," he said. "You've got good taste."

"Didn't choose it." Dean sighed. "Sammy send you after me?"

"And Castiel."

Dean sat up straighter in alarm. "Cas knows?"

"Calm your feathers, numbnuts. He's not judging you or anything."

Dean leaned forward, dropping his head into his hands. This just couldn't get any more fucked up. "Kill me now."

He heard a loud sigh. "No one is dying, Winchester. And you didn't do anything wrong. That's how angels react to those they care about, when they're not walking around with sticks up their asses at least."

"I'm not an angel, whatever you've done with me. Still got my human mind, my human ingrained attitudes. So yeah, maybe you lot have no problem with too much brotherly affection. Guess you can't have if you ever want to get yourselves some, but I'm human. I think human, and that's never gonna change, Gabriel." He turned sore eyes towards the archangel. "I'm human, and I'm... " What? A monster? A pervert? Someone who let everyone down who cared about him in the end.

"You really need to stop beating yourself up, Dean," Gabriel told him seriously. "You're not the bad guy you think you are. And definitely not a monster, take it from someone who knows. In fact, you've got probably the biggest heart I've ever seen. And that's a good thing. You'll figure that out someday."

"Gabriel, why'd you do this to me?" Dean might not use the puppy dog look as consciously as Sam, but that didn't mean it never appeared on his face. "All I did was say you had it easy or some shit like that, and you've... you've let me ruin everything now."

"Nothing's ruined," Gabriel told him firmly. He looked at Dean for a long moment as if searching for something. "You really want to know why?"

Dean's eyes really focused on Gabriel's for the first time. "Yeah. Yeah, 'cause something's gotta make all this make sense."

Gabriel held out a hand to him. "Then share grace with me."

"What?" Dean stared in disbelief. "What the fuck? Wasn't Cas and Sam enough? You want angel sex too?"

Gabriel rolled his eyes. "It's not angel sex. It's just...sharing everything that you- Look if you don't want to do this then fine." He pulled his hand back, muttering, "Told Castiel this wouldn't work..."

"Cas wants us to do this?" Dean was feeling ever more lost here.

"Yeah. And if you give him a hard time about that, I'll make you allergic to pie."

"Why does he want us to do this?"

"He thought you'd understand if you knew how I felt, okay?" Gabriel was all but bristling, and Dean could see it extend through the aura of grace that shimmered around him.

"So he gets why you've fucked me over good and proper? He's okay with it?" Dean stood up and looked down at Gabriel. "All right, let's do it. I'm game. Tell me your oh so awesome reasons, but I'm telling ya, they better be an improvement on 'Sammy needed to learn a lesson about futility and co-dependence', 'cause that? Just showed you up as stupid. You weren't showing him nothing he didn't already know ten times over. It didn't matter. It doesn't when it's family."

"Believe me, I know about family futility," Gabriel all but snapped. He held out his hand again, this time with a challenging look.

Dean gave him a hard look back, hoping it hid the uneasiness churning inside him as he reached out and grabbed Gabriel's hand.

The grace that was surrounding Gabriel slid forward then, surrounding Dean as well and mingling with his own grace. He was suddenly drowning in emotions not his own.

 _Pain and loneliness worse than he'd ever imagined stretched out forever behind him, promising nothing but more but the same to come. Then, first, a spark of interest grew into reluctant affection, tempered by the knowledge even this was all going to get ripped away and destroyed, like the first time. Then there was a moment of decision, bright and sharp, brilliant and painful, when potential loss or not, everything was committed to keeping this alive, even if he couldn't have it for himself..._

"What the..." Dean shook his head, trying to clear it. The depth of emotional memory he was receiving threatened to make him reel. "Jeez, Gabriel, don't hold back, will ya? Tell us how you really feel." He started to pull his hand back, but something made him pause. Instead he tightened his grip around Gabriel's fingers. "Look, I'm not really getting it, okay? I get that, awesome powers or no, your existence has sucked, pretty much. That you've been alone and emo, and... what the fuck's that got to do with me being an angel?"

Gabriel didn't answer in words; but his grace answered for him with the same overwhelming level of emotion as before, only now it was brighter, hopeful even.

 _Surprise at having this chance was followed by a tentative reaching out, which turned into incandescent joy when it -- he -- was accepted._

"Uh, that's Sam, isn't it? That bit?" Dean asked. What the hell was wrong with words anyway?

"You refused to listen to words," Gabriel replied with a smirk that Dean could feel, which was probably the weirdest bit of this so far.

 _The joy settled into a constant background, but there were other, quieter feelings, affection mixed with yearning. The most perfect precious object in existence, but it was in pieces. He could see how the pieces should fit together, found himself holding his breath as they fumbled up against each other, only to release it in frustration as they pulled away again._

"Okay, what's the big Rubik's Cube about? Oh." Dean wasn't sure if Gabriel had put the answer into his head, or if he'd simply suddenly clicked into focus on it. "That's us, isn't it? The four of us. Only, me and Cas? We won't play ball."

"This isn't a game, Dean," Gabriel said, and the frustration in his voice also was threaded through his grace.

 _The frustration felt at being able to see all that they could be, but not being able to make it happen. For himself, yes, but even more for not being able to give it to them, to make them_ see. _And underneath it all a bone deep, soul deep,_ grace deep _terror because, when there are pieces and edges that can catch and break, it could all fall apart. Just like last time. He didn't want to go back to that empty loneliness, but he was even more scared of the rest of them experiencing it. No. No more. He won't let it happen again._

Dean stared at him. "You know what?" he said eventually. "You are all kinds of idiot. Sam's into you; he's not going anywhere. Wherever Sam is, I am, and Cas? Well, he can normally be found close by me sooner or later, whatever other business he's got on. So A: It's not gonna fall apart. B: and way more important, we're not your asshole brothers! So we're not gonna ignore you for the sake of fighting each other, but equally, we're not all gonna climb into some huge angel-sex orgy with you either, if that's where this is going. It's never gonna be the same, Gabriel. I'm sorry. I feel for ya. But you can't make us into what we're not." He flared his wings out a little. "Even changing our species won't hack it."

"I don't want to make you into something you're not," Gabriel told him, grace flaring with exasperation. "I just want you to stop living in freaking denial about how much you mean to the others. And to me!"

"To you?" Now Dean was pretty sure he was boggling. "Dude, you killed me, what, 200 times? Just to make a point? If I'm important to you, it's only 'cause I'm Sammy's big bro. Oh, and a handy dandy target for when you feel a trick coming on."

"Does this _feel_ like you're just a handy target?" Gabriel asked, and suddenly Dean was drowning in grace and Gabriel's emotions again, worse than even before.

"Fuck!" Instinctively, Dean pushed out with his own grace, trying to stem the flood. "Fuck it, Gabriel. Stop! Too much!"

There was a struggle then, as metaphysical as it was real, as their graces tussled back and forth, jostling, pushing and pulling, until there was an almost audible click. Dean felt it as their graces snapped together like two puzzle pieces.

And just like that, Dean lost all perception of his human body. All he knew was Gabriel and Gabriel's _need_. It washed over him, ran through him. "Shit," he said/thought/sang/what the fuck ever. "And I thought I was fucked up? Gabriel, dude, you're a mess. Come here." He did... something. He wasn't sure what, but he thought it might have been what Cas had been trying to show him during the angel-hugging incident.

Because, in the face of everything he now understood, how could he not?

There was a laugh that was almost a sob, and then Gabriel was holding onto him just as tightly. And Dean got not just the need, but the love as well, unwavering and boundless, not just for Sam, but for Castiel... and for Dean.

"You're crazy, you know that?" Dean said gently, regaining enough awareness of himself to lift a hand into Gabriel's hair. He couldn't deny what he'd been told, _shown_. He wanted to, but there was a truth in this angelic coming together that wasn't there in normal conversation. There could be no lies here, no manipulations or tricks. "There's just so much stupid in loving us. Cas, yeah, maybe, but me and Sam? We'll be dead before you've blinked an eye. You're setting yourself up for pain, Gabe, and... I kinda wish you weren't." It was true, much to his surprise. Something inside him hurt at the idea of Gabriel all heart-broken.

Gabriel pulled back just enough to look Dean in the eye. "Do you think there's anywhere you and Sam can go that I can't follow?"

That gave Dean pause. 'Forever' really could mean 'forever' with angels. He guessed he'd always known that, but he'd spent way too much time deliberately not thinking about that kind of thing and Cas... He closed his eyes. "Boy, you are one needy archangel," he said, but he softened it, weaving his fingers into Gabriel's hair above his temples and touching their foreheads together.

"That's what I've been trying to tell you," Gabriel replied. "What about you, Dean? What do you need?"

He shrugged. "The people I care about safe and, you know, not stuck down below. That's enough for me."

"It's not enough for the people who care about you," Gabriel countered. "What do I have to do to convince you that you deserve to be happy?"

Dean snorted. "Better men than you have tried and failed." Which was actually total bullshit, thinking about it, Gabriel not being a man, and really, no one had ever tried that hard, had they?

Dean was, he knew, very good at keeping people at arms length. Safer that way. So the fact he was standing on a mountainside hugging an archangel was... actually not the weirdest thing about this day. "So I get it now. I get why you did it, kinda. Some kind of attempt to get me to understand you and Cas better, get us all closer. Not such a bad motive as motives go, though you get zero points for the execution. You wanna hang with us? You have to respect us, grant us the right to make our own decisions, dude. Anyway, time to change me back."

"Even when you're making the wrong decisions just to be a contrary ass?" Gabriel asked.

"Even then. Part of the gift of free will, Gabe, and what your Dad gave us, you shouldn't be taking away."

Gabriel rolled his eyes. "Fine. But that doesn't mean I'm going to stop trying to get you to see reason. You're stuck with me, so better get used to it." He raised his fingers to snap, but stopped and looked at Dean for a long moment.

Oh Christ, what now? "Uh, Gabriel?"

Gabriel grinned suddenly then leaned in and kissed Dean, more gently than Dean would have ever predicted. Their mingled graces swirled around them, reacting and enhancing the simple contact, until they faded away completely. When Gabriel pulled back, he wriggled his fingers at him. "Poof, you're human again."

"Thanks," Dean said distractedly, staring at Gabriel. Then he shook himself. "I mean it, thanks." He grinned suddenly, stretching and twisting, already feeling more like his old self. Before Gabriel could draw back, he looped a hand around Gabriel's neck and quite deliberately gave him the hottest kiss he knew how to give, albeit briefly, before drawing back and smirking.

He caught a flicker of pleased surprise on Gabriel's features before he grinned back. "So you did learn something out of all of this."

"Yeah, I learned all sorts of stuff I'm never gonna forget," Dean said, pressing closer briefly and moving his mouth near to Gabriel's ear. "Stuff that means you're never gonna get away with your carefree Trickster act with me ever again." He laughed and then pulled right back. "But I won't use it against you casually. Just keep it in reserve in case me or Sammy ever start looking like walking bullseyes to you again." He gave a slanted smile and a wink. "For what it's worth, I like the real you better. Now fly me home, James."

Gabriel grinned and snapped them away.

*****

They appeared straight back in the motel room.

Cas and Sam were sitting side by side on the edge of Sam's bed, mutually glum expressions brightening up as they saw that Gabriel and Dean were back. Well, Sam's face brightened; Cas just straightened up.

Dean, on the other hand, took a step back, only now remembering exactly why he'd fled in the first place. Everything with Gabriel had kind of eclipsed it for a moment there, but now, looking at his brother on a bed, it flooded back, and Dean just wanted to run again.

Gabriel had a hold of his arm though, holding him in place. "Don't make it something it's not," he said in a low voice.

Dean shut his eyes. "Sammy, I'm sorry," he said brokenly.

"Dean, you've nothing to be sorry about," Sam said, and Dean heard him stand. "I took advantage of what Gabriel had done to you. I know... I get how hard it is for you, as the older brother. I do. I shouldn't have pushed. I'm the one who's sorry."

"You both can be pretty sorry, if you ask me," Gabriel said, and Dean could almost hear him rolling his eyes. "Neither of you did anything wrong, okay? No one is feeling violated or anything, so just take it for what it was, a connection that's always been there."

Dean didn't answer and didn't open his eyes. He knew that angels were never gonna see incest the way he did. Hell, he knew Sammy wouldn't either. Sam, with his big logical brain, would just point out crap about consensual adults, closed doors, and the impossibility of mutant babies being conceived. And yeah, that wasn't really crap. It made sense.

But Dean had spent years caring for Sammy, bringing him up, keeping him safe, and had wrestled with needs he knew full well made him the monster in the dark night after night. He'd never given into them, not until today. The fact that Sam was adult and wanted it too couldn't stop the cascading reaction inside Dean whenever he thought about Sam that way.

The silence in the room was starting to get to him. He knew all eyes were turned his way. Taking hold of his courage, he lifted his head and opened his eyes. "So, we're okay?" he said to his brother.

"Of course," Sam said immediately. "I mean, if you are."

"I am," Dean said, and if it was a lie, he'd make sure it wouldn't be a lie soon. He just needed some chill out time.

He turned his head to look at Cas, who was still sitting almost primly on the bed watching him, dreading the kind of judgment he might see there.

But Cas just looked back at him "I'm glad to see you're back to normal," he said.

"Glad to be it, Cas, let me tell ya. So, uh," Dean cleared his throat. "You and me, we need to talk, dude."

"Of course," Cas said, immediately standing up, but Dean could see he looked a little worried.

Dean glanced at Gabriel. "If it's okay with you, I'm gonna take Cas outside to the car for a little while." He knew what it sounded like, but he wasn't asking permission. He was trying to tell Gabriel not to interfere. That he'd got this, if nothing else, under control.

"Knock yourself out," Gabriel replied with a negligent handwave. He leered and added, "Gives Sammy and me time to-"

"Learn when to close it, Gabe," Dean said in a hurry, turning for the door.

Cas fell into step behind him as they walked out to the music of Gabriel's laughter.

Outside, Dean went straight over and unlocked the car and got into the driver's seat. Cas appeared next to him with a small waft of wings. Dean took a deep breath. "So, you and Sammy have been talking?"

"Yes," Cas replied, looking out the windshield. "We discussed the conventions of jealousy."

"Huh?"

"If you don't mind, I don't think I want to get into a hair-pulling fight with Sam."

"What? Why would you-? Oh." Dean took another deep breath. "So your reaction upon hearing about... the reason I flew away was to... consider feeling jealous?"

"No," Cas said.

"O-kay... So why was your chat all green-eyed?" Dean paused briefly and then added, "I mean, about jealousy," since he could already hear Cas' confused response to his first sentence.

"I did not 'consider feeling jealous'. I did feel jealous."

"Oh. Right. Well, I'm glad you decided not to start pulling Sam's hair, even if he could do with losing some of it." Dean twisted in his seat to face Cas more full on. He faced the topic at hand pretty full on too. "So, uh, you know about Gabriel's big gay love dream for the four of us?"

Cas cocked his head to the side. "If you mean about his desire for us to be his new flock, yes."

"Flock? Is that what we're calling it now?" Jesus, he wasn't a fricking sheep, for God's sake. "Whatever. I don't think I can do that. At least not without a helluva lot of days of getting used to the idea first, and maybe not even then. But there's one part of it I'm okay with right now." At least he thought he was. So much had happened, had been revealed, that it seemed plain stupid to hold back on this now. "So, okay, you were wrong."

Cas blinked. "About what?"

"When you said I didn't feel like that. About you. Guess you don't know me so well after all, huh?"

"So... you do desire our relationship to move into a sexual area?" Cas asked almost tentatively.

Dean's eyes flickered shut without his permission. There was something both hot and terrifying about hearing Cas say those words. "If you still do," he said gruffly.

In response, Cas leaned over and pressed his lips to Dean's in a kiss that was both tentative and determined.

"God, Cas," Dean muttered against those soft lips. Suddenly all the confusion, trauma and reaching out of the last 24 hours clicked into sharp focus, into a single direction. He shoved his hand into the back of Cas hair, holding him there while he turned the dial up on the kiss to MAX.

Cas might not have much -- if any -- experience, but he was a quick study, and just the fact that this was _Cas_ here making out with Dean made it unbelievably hot by itself.

It was hard to remember why he should care that they were more or less out in the open in broad daylight, but Dean dragged their lips apart long enough to growl out, "Take us somewhere where it's just us. Preferably some place with a bed." He pressed another fierce kiss on Cas, but then interrupted himself again to add, "And lock the car!"

Instead of the usual finger to the forehead, Cas went in for another kiss, during which Dean felt the jolt of angel travel and then found himself being pressed backwards to lie on a bed. A glance around them showed them to be back in the motel room. The other one. The one in which Sam and Gabriel weren't getting up to things Dean didn't want to think too hard about.

"Yeah," Dean said, pushing his hands under Cas' coat and jacket. "Much better." Part of him was still full of disbelief that this was really, finally happening, but most of him was already totally with the program.

Cas lifted his head to look down at Dean for a moment, the same disbelief in his eyes, but his mouth was curved up into a small smile. "I only have a theoretical knowledge, so you'll have to tell me if I get anything wrong."

"It's easy, dude," Dean said, grinning up. "Whatever feels good? Do it some more. Speaking of which, think I've gotta be all right with your true form now, at least enough for you to, you know, get them up."

That actually got a low rumbling chuckle out of Cas. All the hair on Dean's arms stood up in reaction to the energy that suddenly filled the room. Cas' wings were every bit as magnificent seen only with human senses.

"God, you're... really something, Cas," Dean said, reaching out with both hands to lightly stroke fingertips over feathers. Wings that had been so wrong on him were beyond perfect on his angel. "This okay?"

Cas' eyes fluttered close in response. "More than okay," he replied, pulling his wings in closer for Dean's touch.

"Okay, how about I do this to you," Dean said, combing his fingers deep into plush, stiff feathers, "and you see what you can do about getting us naked?"

"I'll remove our garments with all speed," Cas said, his voice deeper and rougher than normal. He spent the next few minutes struggling with the buttons on Dean's shirt.

"Oh, for-" Dean said, pausing his exploration of Cas' awesome wings. "Don't you have enough to mojo to just click 'em away?"

Cas looked uncertain for a moment, then raised a hand and very deliberately snapped.

Later, Dean would reflect that next time he would be more specific about _where_ to mojo their clothes to, since he'd been rather fond of that shirt, but for the time being, naked angel in his arms trumped everything else.

*****

Gabriel watched Dean and Castiel leave the room and let out a breath he didn't need in a sigh. " _Finally._ "

"Is he okay?" Sam asked, his arms curling around Gabriel from behind.

"He's fine," Gabriel said, leaning back into Sam's warmth. "I think I even got through to him about a few things. Your brother has a very hard head."

"You've just gotta know how to handle him," Sam said, then snorted. "Which wouldn't be how I was handling him before he flew the coop. You okay about that?"

"Depends," Gabriel said,turning around to face Sam. "You okay with what Castiel and I were doing earlier?"

Sam shook his head. "You were sharing grace. That's something I can't give you. I'm glad Cas will." He looked down in a way that seemed almost shy, his hair falling a little over his face. "One step closer to your ultimate objective, huh?"

Gabriel froze, but Sam didn't seem to be accusing. "You talked to Castiel," he said with a raised eyebrow.

"Gabe, I'd kinda already guessed," Sam confessed with a small smile. "You don't watch yourself too much with me anymore. You've said stuff, and, well, it was pretty obvious. That's why I thought you might be okay with me and Dean, if I could make it happen."

"As long as you're okay with it, I'm okay with it," Gabriel reassured him. He paused, wondering if he had the nerve to talk about his hopes with Sam, but if he ever wanted them realized, he was going to have to. "You don't know what it was like. Before everything went to crap."

"No, I don't," Sam agreed, smoothing a thumb over Gabriel's cheek. "But I do know what it's like to be so close to a brother it's almost like you're a single person at times. And while I can't possibly imagine what it's like to be so lonely for so long, I do know that loneliness in the short term, that loss that makes you feel like you've been hollowed out, like you're just a shell around a sucking void. You know I do."

Gabriel grimaced. "As above, so below. I'm sorry about my part in that." He didn't think he'd ever apologized for it before, though he'd been sorry for a long time.

"I know," Sam said with an easy smile. "And you know you're forgiven." He bent to kiss Gabriel softly.

"Can I get you to prove it?" Gabriel asked with a bright smile and an eyebrow waggle.

"Maybe," Sam said, his smile becoming a smirk. "You'll have to tell me exactly _how_ to prove it first." Then the smirk faded a little. "Will we ever be able to get Dean over his issues?" he said wistfully.

"I think so," Gabriel said, turning serious again. "It might take a while, but I think so. After all, if I can get over _my_ issues..."

"I like your 'ultimate objective', if it wasn't obvious. I think it might be mine too."

Gabriel couldn't help the wide grin that lit up his face then. "Always knew you were the smarter Winchester," he teased.

"Duh," Sam said with a grin. "Everybody knows that." He looped a hand around Gabriel's waist, pressing it flat against the small of his back and pulling him close. "Are those two safe left to their own devices long enough for me to provide that proof you mentioned? I was thinking of an itemized list of points."

Gabriel searched out his brother's grace and found it not outside but in the room next door. The emotions that tinged it made him grin even wider. "Oh, I think so," he replied. "They seem to be working down their own itemized list."

"Okay, I'll admit you were right about it working," Sam said with a laugh, his hand moving lower to pat Gabriel's ass. "But that was the last time you do anything to either of us without our permission. Got it?"

"Got it," Gabriel agreed, fairly easily. "I'll just have to work harder at getting your permission."

"I'm a hard taskmaster," Sam said, starting to walk Gabriel backwards toward the bed. "Are you sure you're up to it?"

"Kiddo, I'm up to anything you want."

Sam paused and gave Gabriel an appraising look. "Anything?"

Gabriel cocked his head to the side. "You doubt me?"

"Never," Sam said with a laugh. "Okay. Then give _me_ wings for day. Let me take a turn."

Sam never seemed to stop surprising him. "You're serious?"

"Hey, you're the one who gave me this wing kink." Sam raised his eyebrows. "You're really surprised I wanna try them out?"

Well, when Sam put it that way... and it wasn't like Gabriel _wanted_ to talk him out of this. "All right," he said. "Hold onto your tail feathers."

He raised his hand and snapped.


End file.
